De genesi ad litteram, Book 3, 19. 29 – 20. 32
19. 29. Nunc tamen, ut opera sex dierum nostra inquisitio pertractatioque concludat, hoc primum breviter dicimus, non indifferenter accipiendum quod in aliis operibus dicitur: Dixit Deus: Fiat; hic autem: Dixit Deus: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram: ad insinuandam scilicet, ut ita dicam, pluralitatem personarum propter Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum sanctum. Quam tamen deitatis unitatem intellegendam statim admonet, dicens: Et fecit Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei; non quasi Pater ad imaginem Filii, aut Filius ad imaginem Patris; alioquin non vere dictum est, ad imaginem nostram, si ad Patris solius, aut ad Filii solius imaginem factus est homo: sed ita dictum: Fecit Deus ad imaginem Dei, tamquam diceretur, fecit Deus ad imaginem suam. Cum autem nunc dicitur, ad imaginem Dei, cum superius dictum sit, ad imaginem nostram; significatur quod non id agat illa pluralitas personarum, ut plures deos vel dicamus, vel credamus, vel intellegamus; sed Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum, propter quam Trinitatem dictum est ad imaginem nostram, unum Deum accipiamus, propter quod dictum est, ad imaginem Dei.
19. 29. Now, however, in order to conclude our investigation and tractation of the works of the six days, we must not forsake what we first said briefly, that is, the fact that in the other works [those of the first five days] it is said, “And God said, Let it be done,” whereas here [it is said], “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” that is, it insinuates, I would say, the plurality of persons on account of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. However, to warn that we must always understand the unity of the divinity, he says: “And God made man in the image of God”, not as the Father is in the image of the Son or the Son in the image of the Father, otherwise it would no longer be said truthfully: “in our image”, if man had been made in the image of the Father alone or of the Son alone. But this is how it is said: “God made in the image of God”, as if it were said: “God made in his own image”. Since now it is said: “in the image of God” and before it was said: “in our image”, it is meant that this plurality of persons does not act in such a way that we should say or believe or understand that there are several gods, but that he is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, it is because of the Trinity that it was said: “in our image” and it is so that we accept only one god that it was said: “in the image of God”.
20. 30. Hic etiam illud non est praetereundum, quia cum dixisset, ad imaginem nostram; statim subiunxit, et habeat potestatem piscium maris et volatilium coeli, et caeterorum animalium rationis expertium: ut videlicet intellegamus in eo factum hominem ad imaginem Dei, in quo irrationalibus animantibus antecellit. Id autem est ipsa ratio, vel mens, vel intellegentia, vel si quo alio vocabulo commodius appellatur. Unde et Apostolus dicit: Renovamini in spiritu mentis vestrae, et induite novum hominem, qui renovatur in agnitionem Dei, secundum imaginem eius qui creavit eum 35; satis ostendens ubi sit homo creatus ad imaginem Dei, quia non corporis lineamentis, sed quadam forma intellegibili mentis illuminatae.
20. 30 Nor should we overlook the fact that, after saying “in our image”, he immediately adds: “And may he have power over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over all other animals deprived of reason, so that we may understand that it is in this that man is made in the image of God, that is, in that he surpasses irrational animate beings. And this is precisely reason itself, or judgment, or intelligence, or whatever you want to call it. This is why the apostle says: “Renew yourselves in the spirit of your judgment and put on the new man, who is renewed in the recognition of God according to the image of the one who created him. This shows enough where man has been created in the image of God, it is not in its lineaments, but in some intelligible form of enlightened judgment.
20. 31. Ac per hoc sicut in illa prima luce, si eo nomine recte intellegitur facta lux intellectualis particeps aeternae atque incommutabilis sapientiae Dei, non dictum est: Et sic est factum, ut deinde repeteretur: Et fecit Deus: quia sicut iam, quantum potuimus, disseruimus, non fiebat cognitio aliqua Verbi Dei in prima creatura, ut post eam cognitionem inferius crearetur, quod in eo Verbo creabatur; sed ipsa primo creabatur lux, in qua fieret cognitio Verbi Dei, per quod creabatur, atque ipsa cognitio illi esset ab informitate sua converti ad formantem Deum, et creari, atque formari: postea vero in caeteris creaturis dicitur: Et sic est factum; ubi significatur in illa luce, hoc est in intellectuali creatura, prius facta Verbi cognitio; ac deinde cum dicitur: Et fecit Deus, ipsius creaturae genus fieri demonstratur, quod in Verbo Dei dictum erat ut fieret: hoc et in hominis conditione servatur. Dixit enim Deus: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, et cetera. Ac deinde non dicitur: Et sic est factum; sed iam subinfertur: Et fecit Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei: quia et ipsa natura scilicet intellectualis est, sicut illa lux, et propterea hoc est ei fieri, quod est agnoscere Verbum Dei per quod fit.
20. 31 And this is why, as in the case of this first light, if we understand correctly that by this word was made the intellectual light which participates in the eternal and unchanging wisdom of God, it is not said: “and so was made” and it is not repeated afterwards: “and God made”, because, as we have already said, as far as we could, there was no knowledge of the Word of God in this first creature, so that after this knowledge [which was only in God] was created below, what was created in this Word. But first that light was created in which the knowledge of the Word of God could be made, by which creation is made, and it is precisely this knowledge that, for the creature, directs it to God who forms it and so it is [first] created and [then] formed. But after that, with regard to other creatures, it is said: “And so it was made” and by this is meant that it is in this light, which is in the intellectual creature, that the knowledge of the Word is first made and then, when it is said: “and God made”, it is shown that the very kind of creature is made that had been spoken in the Word of God so that it was made. This is also maintained in the creation of man; God says, in effect: “Let us make man in our image and resemblance, etc.”. And then he does not say: “and so it was made”, but immediately is introduced: “and God made man in the image of God”, since this nature, i.e. the intellect, is like this light, and so for it to be made is to recognize the Word of God, by which it is made.
Note: The creature is first created in the Word of God, it is conceived by God who contemplates all creation in advance, he simultaneously sees everything that will happen in the creature, in creation. This first creation is the one in which the Word of God creates, but then the creature is formed, when it can see the Word of God that created it, this is the creation of the intellectual light by which God can be contemplated by the creature.
20. 32. Nam si diceretur: Et sic est factum, et postea subinferretur: Et fecit Deus; quasi primo factum intellegeretur in cognitione rationalis creaturae, ac deinde in aliqua creatura quae rationalis non esset: quia vero et ista rationalis creatura est, et ipsa eadem agnitione perfecta est. Sicut enim post lapsum peccati homo in agnitione Dei renovatur, secundum imaginem eius qui creavit eum; ita in ipsa agnitione creatus est, antequam delicto veterasceret, unde rursus in eadem agnitione renovaretur. Quae autem non in ea cognitione creata sunt, quia sive corpora sive irrationales animae creabantur, primo facta est in creatura intellectuali cognitio eorum a Verbo, quo dictum est ut fierent: propter quam cognitionem primo dicebatur: Et sic est factum: ut ostenderetur facta ipsa cognitio in ea natura, quae hoc in Verbo Dei ante cognoscere poterat; ac deinde fiebant ipsae corporales et irrationales creaturae, propter quod deinceps addebatur: Et fecit Deus.
20. 32. Indeed, if it were said: “and so it was made”, and after it were introduced: “and God made” one could almost understand that first it was done in the knowledge of the rational creature and then in some other creature, which is not rational. Indeed, this one is a rational creature and it reaches its fullness through this very recognition [of the Word] that created it. Just as after the error of sin man is renewed according to the image of the one who created him, so it is in this very recognition that he was created, before he grew old through sin, in order to be renewed by this same recognition. What, on the other hand, was not created in this knowledge, either because it was created body or because irrational soul, first was created its knowledge in the intellectual creature by the Word, by which it was said: “Let this be”. It is because of this knowledge that it is first said: “and so it was made”, in order to show that this knowledge was first made in this nature which could know this first in the Word of God and then were made these corporeal and irrational creatures, and it is for this reason that it is added after: “and God made”.
De genesi ad litteram, Book 6, 1.1-6.10 and 8.13-12.22
1. 1. Et finxit Deus hominem pulverem de terra, et insufflavit in faciem eius flatum vitae; et factus est homo in animam viventem (Genèse 2, 7). Hic primo videndum est utrum ista recapitulatio sit, ut nunc dicatur quomodo factus sit homo quem sexto illo die factum legimus; an vero tunc quidem cum fecit omnia simul, in his etiam latenter hominem fecit, sicut fenum terrae antequam esset exortum: ut eo modo et ipse cum iam esset in secreto quodam naturae aliter factus, sicut illa quae simul creavit cum factus esset dies, accessu temporis etiam isto modo fieret, quo in hac perspicua forma vitam gerit, vel male vel bene; sicut fenum quod factum est antequam exoreretur super terram, accedente iam tempore et fontis illius irrigatione exortum est, ut esset super terram.
1.1 And God formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life. And man was made a living soul. We must first look at one thing: whether this is a recapitulation, so that it may now be said in what way man was made, of whom we [previously] read that he was made on the sixth day, or whether, indeed, he who made everything simultaneously also made man latently at that time, as [he made] the hay of the earth before it came out of the ground. In this way man too, having already been made otherwise, in a certain secret of nature, like all that God created simultaneously, at the moment when the day was made, would, when the time came, be made in this way, from which he conducts, good or bad, life in this manifest form, like hay, which was made before it came out above the earth, and following irrigation arriving the time it came out in order to be above the earth.
1. 2. Prius ergo secundum recapitulationem id conemur accipere. Fortassis quippe ita homo factus sit in die sexto, sicut dies ipse primitus factus est, sicut firmamentum, sicut terra et mare. Neque enim haec dicenda sunt ante in quibusdam primordiis iam facta latuisse, ac deinde in hanc faciem qua mundus exstructus est, accessu temporis tamquam exorta claruisse; sed ab exordio saeculi, cum factus est dies, conditum mundum, in cuius elementis simul sunt condita, quae post accessu temporis orerentur, vel fruteta, vel animalia quaeque secundum suum genus. Nam nec ipsa sidera credendum est in elementis mundi primitus facta atque recondita, accessu postea temporis exstitisse, atque in has enituisse formas quae coelitus fulgent; sed illo senario perfectionis numero creata simul omnia, cum factus est dies. Utrum ergo sic et homo ista iam specie qua in sua natura vivit, et agit sive bonum sive malum? an et ipse in occulto sicut fenum agri antequam exortum est, ut hoc ei post esset accessu temporis exoriri, quod de pulvere factus est?
1. 2. Let us first endeavour to understand according to [the hypothesis of] recapitulation. Perhaps, in fact, man was created in this way on the sixth day, as the day, the firmament, the earth and the sea were created first. Indeed, it cannot be said that these things having already been made were at first hidden in certain beginnings and then, when the time came, became clear as having come out in this aspect, in which the world developed. But, from the beginning of time, when the day was made, was fled the world in the elements of which were fled simultaneously the things which, after the coming of time, would have arisen, shrubs or animals each according to its kind. For neither must we believe that the stars themselves were made in the elements of the original world and that they remained hidden and after the coming of time appeared and shone in those forms that shine above. But it was through this number six of perfection that everything was created simultaneously, when the day was made. Was man, then, also created thus already in this form by which he lives in his nature and acts good or evil? Or would he too, like the hay of the field, before it came out [of the earth], [be created first] in an occulted form, only to come to light, after the arrival of time, when he was made from dust?
2. 3. Accipiamus ergo eum sexto ipso die in hac perspicua visibilique forma de limo factum, sed tunc non commemoratum quod nunc recapitulando insinuatur, et videamus utrum nobiscum ipsa Scriptura concordet. Sic certe scriptum est, cum adhuc diei sexti opera narrarentur: Et dixit Deus: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram; et habeat potestatem piscium maris et volatilium coeli, et omnium pecorum, et omnis terrae, et omnium repentium quae repunt super terram. Et fecit Deus hominem, ad imaginem Dei fecit cum; masculum et feminam fecit eos, et benedixit eos Deus, dicens: Crescite et multiplicamini, et implete terram, et dominamini eius; et habete potestatem piscium maris, et volatilium coeli, et omnium pecorum, et omnis terrae, et omnium reptilium repentium super terram. Iam ergo de limo formatus erat, et illi iam soporato mulier ex latere facta erat, sed hoc commemoratum non erat, quod nunc recapitulando commemoratum est. Neque enim sexto die factus est masculus, et accessu temporis postea facta femina; sed fecit eum, inquit; masculum et feminam fecit eos, et benedixit eos. Quomodo ergo iam homine in paradiso constituto mulier ei facta est? An et hoc praetermissum Scriptura recoluit? Nam sexto illo die etiam paradisus plantatus est, et ibi homo collocatus et soporatus est ut Eva formaretur, et ea formata evigilavit, eique nomen imposuit. Sed haec nisi per temporales moras fieri non possent. Non itaque ita facta sunt, sicut creata sunt omnia simul.
2.3 Let us suppose, then, that he [man] was made from mud on this same sixth day in this manifest and visible form, but that then was not mentioned what now is insinuated by recapitulating; let us see, then, if Scripture agrees with us. Thus it was written with certainty, when the works of the sixth day are narrated so far: “And God said, “Let us make man in our image and resemblance, that he may have power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over cattle and over all the earth and over the creeping things that creep upon the earth.” And God made man, in the image of God he made him; male and female he made them. And he blessed them, saying: grow and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it and have power over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over all cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Already, then, he had been formed from the mud and already, while he had been asleep, the woman had been made from the side, but this had not been mentioned, it is now that it is mentioned when it is recapitulated. Indeed, it is not said either that on the sixth day the male was made and when the time came the female was made, but it says: “He made it. Male and female, he made them and blessed them. In what way, then, having already established man in paradise, was woman made for him? Does Scripture also return to this omission? For also paradise was planted on that sixth day and man was placed there and put to sleep, so that Eve might be formed, and when she was formed, he awoke and imposed a name on her. But these things cannot be done except for a temporal duration. This is why they were not made in the same way as all the things that were created simultaneously.
3. 4. Quantamlibet enim homo cogitet facilitatem qua Deus etiam haec simul cum caeteris fecit, verba certe hominis novimus, nisi per temporales morulas emitti voce non posse. Cum ergo verba hominis audimus, vel cum animantibus, vel cum mulieri nomen imposuit, vel cum secutus etiam dixit: Propter hoc relinquet homo patrem suum et matrem, et coniungetur uxori suae; et erunt duo in carne una; quibuslibet syllabis ista sonuerint, nec duae quaecumque in his verbis syllabae simul sonare potuerunt: quanto minus haec omnia cum iis quae simul omnia creata sunt, simul fieri?
3. 4 Indeed, great as man may think the ease with which God made these things simultaneously with others, surely, we know that man’s words cannot be uttered by voice except for small temporal durations. So, when we hear the words of man, when he imposes a name on either the animals or the woman, or also when he then says: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will be two in one flesh” (Genesis 2:24) by whatever syllables these [words] may have sounded, any two of the syllables found in these words could not have sounded simultaneously, still less could all this have been done at the same time as all those things that were created simultaneously.
Ac per hoc, aut et illa omnia non simul ab ipso summo exordio saeculorum, sed per moras atque intervalla temporum facta sunt, diesque ille non spiritali sed corporali substantia primum conditus, vel circuitu lucis nescio quomodo, vel emissione et contractione, mane ac vesperam faciebat: aut si consideratis omnibus quae superioribus sermonibus pertractata sunt, probabilis ratio persuasit, illum diem spiritalem sublimiter ac primitus conditam lucem quamdam sapientem vocatum esse diem, cuius praesentia per ordinatam cognitionem conditioni rerum in numero senario praeberetur; atque huic sententiae Scripturae verba congruere quod ait postea: Cum factus est dies, fecit Deus coelum et terram, et omne viride agri antequam esset super terram, et omne fenum agri antequam exoreretur; attestari etiam quod alibi scriptum est: Qui vivit in aeternum, creavit omnia simul: non est dubium hoc quod homo de limo terrae finctus est, eique formata uxor ex latere, iam non ad conditionem qua simul omnia facta sint, pertinere, quibus perfectis requievit Deus; sed ad eam operationem, quae fit iam per volumina saeculorum, qua usque nunc operatur.
And this is why: either 1. all these things [Adam formed from dust and Eve taken from his rib] were not made simultaneously from this extreme beginning of the centuries, but during durations and intervals of time and this first day which was founded would not then be a spiritual substance but a corporeal one which made, I do not know how, whether by a circuit of light or by emission and contraction, a morning and an evening; or, 2. considered all that has been dealt with in the preceding discourses, a probable reason [has] convinced us that this spiritual day that has been sublimely and primordially established is a certain light of wisdom that is what has been called day. The presence of this day [of this wisdom and light] is assigned to the establishment of things through an intelligence that is ordered [distributed] according to the number six and the words of the phrases of Scripture correspond to this, this is what it says after: “when the day was made, God made heaven and earth, and all the green of the field, before it was above the earth, and all the hay of the field, before it came out [of the earth]” (Genesis 2:4-5). This is also attested by what is written elsewhere: “He who lives forever created everything simultaneously” (Ecclesiastes 18:1). There is no doubt that the man made from the mud of the earth, and the woman formed for him from [his] side, do not belong to that creation in which all things were made simultaneously and completed, in which God rested, but this [Adam made from the mud and Eve formed from her side] belongs to that operation which is henceforth going on throughout the ages, by which [creation] is worked out until now [by God].
Note: On that primordial day when everything was done simultaneously, before the course of time, the stars were not yet crossing the sky, and there was no sunrise or sunset.
3.5. Huc accedit quod ipsa etiam verba quibus narratur quomodo Deus paradisum plantaverit, in eoque hominem quem fecerat collocarit, ad eumque adduxerit animalia, quibus nomina imponeret, in quibus cum adiutorium simile illi non fuisset inventum, tunc ei mulierem costa eius detracta formaverit, satis nos admonent haec non ad illam operationem Dei pertinere, unde requievit in die septimo, sed ad istam potius qua per temporum cursus usque nunc operatur. Cum enim paradisus plantaretur, ita narrat: Et plantavit Deus paradisum in Eden ad orientem, et posuit ibi hominem quem finxerat. Et eiecit Deus adhuc de terra omne lignum pulchrum ad aspectum, et bonum ad escam.
Here we must also add the fact that these words, which recount how God planted paradise, placed the man he had made in it, brought the animals to him, gave them names, found no helper suitable for him, then took one of his ribs and formed a wife for him, all these words tell us clearly that this does not fit with God’s work, from which he rested on the seventh day, but rather with that which has been carried out throughout the course of time until now. Indeed, when paradise was planted, [the text] recounts: “And God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. And God caused to grow out of the ground every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:8-9).
4. 5. Cum dicit ergo: Eiecit adhuc de terra omne lignum pulchrum ad aspectum 7; manifestat utique quod aliter nunc eiecerit de terra lignum, aliter tunc cum tertio die produxit terra herbam pabuli, seminantem semen secundum genus suum, et lignum fructuosum secundum suum genus. Hoc est enim: Eiecit adhuc, super illud scilicet quod iam eiecerat: tunc utique potentialiter et causaliter in opere pertinente ad creanda omnia simul, a quibus consummatis in die septimo requievit; nunc autem visibiliter in opere pertinente ad temporum cursum, sicut usque nunc operatur.
4.5. When he says: “He made to grow again from the earth every tree beautiful in appearance”, this clearly manifests that one thing is when he will have made to grow now the tree from the earth, and another when, on the third day the earth produced the grass for pasture that sows its seed according to its kind and the fruit tree according to its kind. This is indeed: “he made also to grow”, i.e. on what had already grown: then, in potentiality and as a cause in the work that is appropriate to create all things simultaneously, completed which he rested on the seventh day, now, on the contrary, visibly in the work that is appropriate to the course of time, as it is operated until now.
4. 6. Nisi forte quis dicat non omne ligni genus tertio die creatum, sed dilatum aliquid quod sexto crearetur, cum homo factus est atque in paradiso constitutus. Sed quae sexto die creata sint, apertissime Scriptura declarat; anima viva scilicet secundum unumquodque genus, quadrupedum et repentium et bestiarum, et ipse homo ad imaginem Dei masculus et femina. Proinde potuit praetermittere quomodo sit homo factus, quem tamen ipso die factum esse narravit, ut recapitulando postea, quemadmodum etiam factus fuerit intimaret, hoc est de terrae pulvere, et mulier illi de latere; non tamen aliquod creaturae genus praetermittere, vel in eo quod dixit Deus: Fiat, sive: Faciamus, vel in eo quod dicitur: Sic est factum, sive: Fecit Deus. Alioquin frustra per singulos dies tam diligenter distincta sunt omnia, si permixtionis dierum potest ulla suspicio residere, ut cum herba et lignum diei tertio sit attributum, aliqua ligna etiam sexto die creata esse credamus, quae ipso sexto die Scriptura tacuerit.
4.6. Unless, perhaps, someone says that on the third day all kinds of trees were not created, but that something was postponed in order to be created on the sixth day, when man was made and placed in paradise. But Scripture very openly declares what was created on the sixth day, namely living souls, each according to its kind, quadrupeds, reptiles and beasts and man himself, male and female, in the image of God. Therefore, he may have omitted [to say] in what manner man was made, yet he related that he was made that same day, to make known afterwards, by recapitulating, in what manner also he was made, that is, from the dust of the earth and his wife from his side; yet he could not have omitted any kind of creature, either when God says: “Let it be”, nor “Let us make”, nor when it is said: “Thus it was made”, nor “And God made”. Otherwise, it would be in vain that everything has been so diligently detailed for each day, if there could remain the slightest suspicion of confusion of days, and that, when herbs and trees were attributed to the third day, we believe that some trees were also created on the sixth day and that Scripture, on that same sixth day, would have not mentioned it.
5. 7. Postremo quid respondebimus de bestiis agri, et volatilibus coeli, quae adduxit Deus ad Adam, ut videret quid ea vocaret? Quod ita scriptum est: Et dixit Dominus Deus; Non est bonum esse hominem solum; faciamus illi adiutorium secundum ipsum. Et finxit Deus adhuc de terra omnes bestias agri, et omnia volatilia coeli, et adduxit illa ad Adam, ut videret quid vocaret illa: et omne quodcumque illud vocavit Adam animam vivam, hoc nomen illius. Et vocavit Adam nomina omnibus pecoribus et omnibus volatilibus coeli, et omnibus bestiis agri. Adae autem non est inventus adiutor similis ipsi. Et iniecit Deus mentis alienationem super Adam, et obdormivit, et sumpsit unam de costis eius, et adimplevit carnem in locum eius, et aedificavit Dominus Deus costam, quam sumpsit de Adam, in mulierem.
5.7. Finally, what shall we say about the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, which God led to Adam, in order to see what he would call them? What was written thus: “And God said, It is not good that man should be alone; let us make him a helper according to [what he is] himself. And God fashioned out of the earth every beast of the field and bird of the air, and brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatever it was that Adam called a living soul, that was its name. And Adam called by names the cattle and all the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field. For Adam, however, no such helper was found. And God induced in Adam a loss of consciousness, and he fell asleep, and [God] took one of his ribs, put flesh in its place, and the Loving God built the rib he had taken from Adam, into a woman.” (Genesis 2:18-22)
Si ergo consequenter, cum in pecoribus et bestiis agri et volatilibus coeli non esset inventum adiutorium simile homini, fecit ei Deus adiutorium simile de costa lateris eius; hoc autem factum est cum easdem bestias agri et volatilia coeli adhuc de terra finxisset, et ad illum adduxisset: quomodo sexto die factum hoc potest intellegi, quandoquidem illo die produxit terra animam vivam secundum verbum Dei; volatilia vero quinto die produxerunt aquae similiter secundum verbum Dei? Non itaque hic diceretur: Et finxit Deus adhuc de terra omnes bestias agri, et omnia volatilia coeli, nisi quia iam terra produxerat omnes bestias agri sexto die, et aqua omnia volatilia coeli quinto die.
If, then, having found no similar help for man among the cattle and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, God made for him a similar help from his rib, this however was done having already fashioned again from the earth these beasts of the field, the birds of the air and after having led them to this one: in what way can it be understood that this was done on the sixth day, when on that day the earth produced the living soul according to the word of God, while the waters had produced the birds on the fifth day in a similar way according to the word of God? So it would not say here: “And God formed again out of the earth all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air”, if the earth had not already produced all the beasts of the field on the sixth day and the water had not already produced the birds on the fifth day.
Aliter ergo tunc, id est potentialiter atque causaliter, sicut illi operi competebat, quo creavit omnia simul, a quibus in die septimo requievit: aliter autem nunc, sicut ea videmus, quae per temporalia spatia creat, sicut usque nunc operatur. Ac per hoc iam per istos notissimos lucis corporalis dies, qui circuitu solis fiunt, Eva facta est de latere viri sui. Tunc enim Deus adhuc finxit de terra bestias et volatilia, in quibus cum adiutorium simile ipsi Adam non esset inventum, illa formata est. In talibus ergo diebus etiam ipsum de limo finxit Deus.
It is, then, in a way, that is, in power and according to causes, that in a [first] moment, as was fitting for that work, [God] created simultaneously all the things from which he was to rest on the seventh day, and it is in another way, however, that now he creates things as we see them, through temporal spaces, according to what is operated until now. And it was during one of those well-known days of bodily light, made by the circuit of the sun, that Eve was made from her husband’s side. It was at this time that God fashioned the beasts from the earth and the birds, among whom no helpmate like Adam would be found, that she was formed. It was in such days, then, that God himself also fashioned this one [Adam] from mud.
5. 8. Neque enim dicendum est, masculum quidem sexto die factum, feminam vero posterioribus diebus; cum ipso sexto die apertissime dictum sit: Masculum et feminam fecit eos, et benedixit eos, et caetera, quae de ambobus et ad ambos dicuntur. Aliter ergo tunc ambo, et nunc aliter ambo: tunc scilicet secundum potentiam per verbum Dei tamquam seminaliter mundo inditam, cum creavit omnia simul, a quibus in die septimo requievit, ex quibus omnia suis quaeque temporibus iam per saeculorum ordinem fierent; nunc autem secundum operationem praebendam temporibus, qua usque nunc operatur, et oportebat iam tempore suo fieri Adam de limo terrae, eiusque mulierem ex viri latere.
Nor, indeed, could it be said that the male was made on the sixth day and the female in the days that followed; since it is plainly said: “Male and female he made, blessed them and so on, which is said of both and to both. In one way, then, [are] both at a first moment, in another [are] both now: that is, in a first moment, according to the power, introduced into the world, by the Word of God, as in the way of a seed, when he created everything simultaneously and from which he rested on the seventh day; it is from these things that each thing in its time would henceforth be made through the order of the centuries, whereas now according to an operation that is entrusted to the times, by which it is operated until now and according to which it was necessary that then Adam was made from mud and his wife from the side of man.
6. 9. In qua distributione operum Dei, partim ad illos dies invisibiles pertinentium, quibus creavit omnia simul, partim ad istos, in quibus operatur quotidie quidquid ex illis tamquam involucris primordialibus in tempore evolvitur, si non importune atque absurde Scripturae verba secuti sumus, quae nos ad haec distinguenda duxerunt: cavendum est ne propter ipsarum rerum aliquanto difficilem perceptionem, quam tardiores assequi non sufficiunt, putemur aliquid sentire ac dicere, quod scimus nos nec sentire nec dicere. Quamquam enim praecedentibus sermonibus, quantum potuerim, lectorem praestruxerim; plures tamen arbitror caligare in his locis, et putare ita fuisse prius hominem in illo Dei opere, quo simul creata sunt, ut aliquam vitam duceret, ut Dei locutionem ad se directam, cum dixit Deus: Ecce dedi vobis omne pabulum seminale 10, discerneret, crederet, intellegeret. Noverit ergo qui hoc putat, non hoc me sensisse, neque dixisse.
6. 9. In this distribution of God’s work, a part is appropriate to those invisible days, in which he created everything simultaneously, and a part to these days, in which every thing is developed in time from those [which were created simultaneously] which are like primordial envelopes, if we have followed the words of Scripture which have led us to distinguish these things, not improperly and not absurdly, then we shall have to be careful, so that, because of the rather difficult perception of these things which the slower [of mind] cannot follow, it may not be thought that I esteem and say, what I know I do not esteem and say. Although, indeed, in the preceding discourses, as far as I have been able, I have prepared the reader, yet I feel that many are in confusion about these matters and think that the man who was first in that work of God in which all was created simultaneously, led a life such as would enable him to discern, believe and understand the words of God which were directed to him when he said, “Behold, I have given you all pasture from seed.” Let him know, then, who thus believes that this is not how I have esteemed and said.
6. 10. Sed rursus, si dixero non ita fuisse hominem in illa prima rerum conditione, qua creavit Deus omnia simul, sicuti est non tantum perfectae aetatis homo, sed ne infans quidem, nec tantum infans, sed ne puerperium quidem in utero matris, nec tantum hoc, sed nec semen quidem visibile hominis; putabit omnino non fuisse. Redeat ergo ad Scripturam; inveniet sexto die hominem factum ad imaginem Dei, factos autem masculum et feminam 11. Item quaerat quando facta sit femina; inveniet extra illos sex dies: tunc enim facta est, quando Deus de terra finxit adhuc bestias agri et volatilia coeli; non quando volatilia produxerunt aquae, et animam vivam, in qua et bestiae sunt, produxit terra. Tunc autem factus est homo et masculus et femina: ergo et tunc et postea. Neque enim tunc, et non postea; aut vero postea, et non tunc: nec alii postea, sed iidem ipsi aliter tunc, aliter postea. Quaeret ex me quomodo. Respondebo: Postea visibiliter, sicut species humanae constitutionis nota nobis est; non tamen parentibus generantibus, sed ille de limo, illa de costa eius. Quaeret tunc quomodo. Respondebo: Invisibiliter, potentialiter, causaliter, quomodo fiunt futura non facta.
6. 10. But, on the other hand, if I had said that man, in this first creation of things in which God created everything simultaneously, was not like a man in the perfection of age, nor like a child and not only like child but not even like an embryo in the womb of the mother, nor like the visible seed of man, he would believe that he was not at all. Let him return, then, to Scripture and he will find that on the sixth day man was made in the image of God, and man and woman were made. Let him also seek when the woman was made, and he will find that it was outside these six days; for she was made at that first moment, when God still fashioned from the earth the cattle of the field and the birds of the air, not when the waters produced birds and the earth the living soul, and in her [among the living souls] are also the beasts. It was then, however, that man was made, male and female: therefore then [male and female] and also afterwards. Indeed, they were not made [male and female] at that first moment and they were not made afterwards or they were made afterwards and not at that first moment; and they were not other afterwards but exactly the same as at that first moment only that afterwards they were otherwise. He asks: in what way afterwards? I answer: visibly, like the human species whose constitution is known to us, though not by parents who begot them, but he from the mud and she from the rib of him. He asks me: and in what way at this first moment? I’ll answer: invisibly, potentially, according to cause, in the way that future things are made and not yet made.
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8. 13. Quomodo ergo loquebatur, inquit, eis qui nondum audiebant, nec intellegebant; quia nec erant qui verba perciperent? Possem respondere sic eos allocutum Deum, quemadmodum Christus nos nondum natos, etiam longe post futuros, nec tantum nos, sed etiam eos omnes qui futuri sunt post nos. Omnibus enim dicebat, quos suos futuros videbat: Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque in consummationem saeculi: sicut Deo notus erat propheta cui dixit: Priusquam te formarem in utero, novi te; sicut decimatus est Levi cum esset in lumbis Abraham. Cur enim non ita et ipse Abraham in Adam, et ipse Adam in primis operibus mundi, quae Deus creavit omnia simul? Sed verba Domini per os carnis eius, et verba Dei per ora Prophetarum temporali corporis voce proferuntur, et omnibus syllabis suis congruas temporum moras sumunt, atque consumunt: cum vero Deus dicebat:
8. 13. In what way, he will say, then, was it spoken to them, who as yet neither heard nor understood, since they were not yet such that they could perceive words? I could answer that God spoke to them in the same way that Christ spoke not only to us who were not yet born and would be long afterwards, but also to all those who will be born after us. And to all those whom he saw would be his in the future, [Christ] said, in effect: “Behold, I am with you to the consummation of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Just as the prophet [Jeremiah] was known to God, to whom he said: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jr 1:5). In the same way, Levi paid tithes when he was still in Abraham’s womb (Hb 7:9-10). Why, indeed, should Abraham not be so himself in Adam and Adam in the first works of the world, which God created all simultaneously? But the words of the Lord [Jesus Christ] through his mouth of flesh, and the words of God through the mouths of the prophets, were uttered by the voice of a temporal body; they take up intervals of time corresponding to all their syllables, and last during those intervals. On the other hand, when he said:
Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, et habeat potestatem piscium maris et volatilium coeli, et omnium pecorum, et omnis terrae, et omnium reptilium quae repunt super terram; et: Crescite, et multiplicamini, et replete terram, et dominamini eius; et habete potestatem piscium maris, et volatilium coeli, et omnium pecorum, et omnis terrae, et omnium reptilium quae repunt super terram; et: Ecce dedi vobis omne pabulum seminale, seminans semen quod est super omnem terram, et omne lignum fructiferum, quod habet in se fructum seminis seminalis, quod erit vobis ad escam;
“Let us make man in our image and likeness, that he may have power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over all cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen 1:26) And [when he said], “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and have dominion over it; and have power over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over all cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen 1:28). And: “Behold, I have given you every pasture that bears and sows seed that is in all the earth, and every fruit tree that has seed-bearing fruit in it, which will be food for you” (Gen 1:29).
ipse sermo eius ante omnem aeris sonum, ante omnem carnis et nubis vocem, in illa summa eius Sapientia, per quam facta sunt omnia, non quasi humanis auribus instrepebat, sed rebus factis rerum faciendarum causas inserebat, et omnipotenti potentia futura faciebat, hominemque suo tempore formandum, in temporum tamquam semine vel tamquam radice condebat, quando condebat unde inciperent saecula, ab illo condita qui est ante saecula. Creaturae quippe aliae creaturas alias, quaedam tempore, quaedam causis praecedunt: ille autem omnia quae fecit, non solum excellentia, qua etiam causarum effector est, verum etiam aeternitate praecedit. Sed de hoc opportunioribus deinde Scripturarum locis fortassis plenius disserendum est.
This speech of God, before any resonance of the air, before the voice of flesh and the voice of the cloud, was in that superior Wisdom of God by which all things were made; this speech made no sound to human ears, but inserted into things already made, the causes of things yet to be made, and made future things by his almighty power, and established man, who was to be fashioned in his own time, in time as a seed or as a root, when he established the moment from which the ages would begin, established by the one who is before the ages. Certainly, some creatures precede others, some by time, some by causes; but the one who made them all, precedes them not only by excellence, for he is also the author of causes and in truth, he also precedes them by the eternity.
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9. 14. … Quia enim noverat Ieremiam Deus priusquam eum formaret in utero, dubitare fas non est: apertissime quippe dicit: Priusquam te formarem in utero, novi te. Ubi autem illum nosset antequam ita formasset, etsi nostrae infirmitati assequi vel difficile vel impossibile est; utrum in aliquibus propinquioribus causis, sicut Levi in lumbis Abrahae decimatus est; an in ipso Adam, in quo genus humanum tamquam radicaliter institutum est; et in eo ipso utrum iam cum de limo formatus esset, an causaliter in his operibus factus quae creavit omnia simul; an vero ante omnem potius creaturam, sicut elegit et praedestinavit sanctos suos ante mundi constitutionem;
9. 14. … Indeed, there can be no doubt that God knew Jeremiah [the prophet] before forming him in the womb, since he says quite openly: “Before I formed you in the womb, I formed you” (Jeremiah 1:5). But where would he have known him before he formed him? It is difficult or impossible for our weakness to reach this. Is it in closer causes, like Levi who paid tithes when he was in Abraham’s lap, or is it in Adam himself, in whom the human race was begun as in a root? And if it is in Adam, was it in himself when he was formed from mud, or was he made in a causal way in those works which he created all simultaneously? Or did he know him, rather before any creature, in the same way that he elected and predestined his saints before the establishment of the world (cf. Ephesians 1:4)?
an potius in omnibus praecedentibus causis, sive quas commemoravi, sive quas non commemoravi, priusquam in utero formaretur; non arbitror scrupulosius quaeri oportere, dummodo Ieremiam constet, ex quo est in hac luce a parentibus editus, ex illo egisse vitam propriam, qua grandescens aetatis accessu, posset vivere sive male sive bene; antea vero nullo modo, non solum priusquam in utero formaretur, sed nec iam ibi formatus, antequam natus. Neque enim habet ullam cunctationem apostolica illa sententia de geminis in Rebeccae utero nondum agentibus aliquid boni aut mali 19.
Or rather he would have been formed before being in the womb in all these previous causes either those I have mentioned or those I have not mentioned. I do not think it is necessary to search further, provided we agree that from the moment Jeremiah was brought into the world by his parents, he led his own life, in which, advancing in age, he could live [acting] evil or good, whereas previously, not only before he was formed in the womb, but neither when he was already formed in it, it was not possible for him in any way [to act evil or good] before he was born.
9. 15. Nec tamen frustra scriptum est, nec infantem mundum esse a peccato, cuius est unius diei vita super terram; et illud in Psalmo: Ego in iniquitatibus conceptus sum, et in peccatis mater mea 20 me in utero aluit; et quod in Adam omnes moriuntur, in quo omnes peccaverunt 21. Nunc autem liquido teneamus, quaelibet parentum merita traiciantur in prolem, quaecumque gratia Dei, antequam nascatur, quemque sanctificet, nec iniquitatem esse apud Deum, nec boni malive agere quemquam quod ad propriam personam pertineat, antequam natus est: illamque sententiam qua nonnulli putant alibi peccasse magis minusque animas, et pro diversorum meritis peccatorum in diversa corpora esse detrusas, apostolicae non convenire sententiae; cum apertissime dictum sit, nihil egisse nondum natos seu boni seu mali.
9. 15. However, it has not been written in vain that the child, even if he has lived only one day on earth, is not pure from all sin (Job. 14, Sel. LXX): the Psalmist has said with truth “that he was conceived in iniquity and that his mother nourished him in her womb in the midst of sins (Ps. 51:7);” it is also written that “all men have sinned and die in Adam (Rom. 5:12).” So let us hold fast to this indisputable truth that, despite the merits that pass from the fathers to their descendants, despite the grace that can sanctify a man before his birth, there is no injustice on God’s part, and that no act of good or evil can be personal before birth, that the particular system according to which souls have committed more or less faults in a previous life, and, according to the extent of their sins, have been united to different bodies, is in contradiction with the word so formal of the Apostle, that the sons of Rebecca did not do, before their birth, any good or bad act.
9. 16. Ac per hoc aliqua quaestio est suo loco retractanda, quid de peccato primorum parentum, qui duo soli fuerunt, generis humani contraxerit universa consparsio: nihil tamen talium meritorum habere potuisse hominem antequam de terrae pulvere fictus esset, antequam suo tempore viveret, nulla quaestio est. Sicut enim Esau et Iacob, quos nondum natos dixit Apostolus nihil egisse boni vel mali, non possemus dicere traxisse aliquid meriti de parentibus, si nec ipsi parentes egissent aliquid boni aut mali; nec genus humanum peccasse in Adam, si ipse non peccasset Adam; non autem peccasset Adam, nisi iam suo tempore viveret, quo posset vivere sive bene sive male: ita frustra peccatum eius, seu recte factum requiritur, cum adhuc in rebus simul creatis causaliter conditus, nec vita propria iam vivebat, nec in parentibus sic viventibus erat. In illa enim prima conditione mundi, cum Deus omnia simul creavit, homo factus est qui esset futurus, ratio creandi hominis, non actio creati.
9. 16. Here arises the question, which we shall have to take up again later, of how the human race, in spreading itself over the earth, contracted the sin of our first parents, who at first exist alone: as for them, they could not have suffered the consequences of any transgression, before being formed from the loam of the earth and receiving life at the appointed time; this is a point which need not even be discussed. For just as we would have no reason to say that Esau and Jacob, incapable, according to the Apostle, of having acted good or evil before their birth (Romans 9:11), had inherited the virtues or faults of their parents, if their parents had themselves done neither good nor evil, or that the human race had sinned in Adam, if Adam himself had not sinned, which would have been impossible, if he had not received with life the freedom to do good and evil; in the same way, we would look in vain to see how Adam could be criminal or innocent, since, being established in principle in the set of the things created in a causal way, he didn’t already live a personal life, nor was he in parents living like this. Indeed, in the primitive and simultaneous creation, man was formed as a possible being, that is, in the principle from which he was to emerge, and not with the actual existence he would later lead.
10. 17. Sed haec aliter in Verbo Dei, ubi ista non facta, sed aeterna sunt; aliter in elementis mundi, ubi omnia simul facta futura sunt; aliter in rebus quae secundum causas simul creatas, non iam simul sed suo quaeque tempore creantur, in quibus Adam iam formatus ex limo, et Dei flatu animatus, sicut fenum exortum; aliter in seminibus, in quibus rursus quasi primordiales causae repetuntur, de rebus ductae quae secundum causas, quas primum condidit, exstiterunt, velut herba ex terra, semen ex herba. In quibus omnibus ea iam facta modos et actus sui temporis accepterunt, quae ex occultis atque invisibilibus rationibus, quae in creatura causaliter latent, in manifestas formas naturasque prodierunt: sicut herba exorta super terram, et homo factus in animam vivam, et caetera huiusmodi, sive frutecta sive animantia, ad illam operationem Dei pertinentia, qua usque nunc operatur. Sed etiam ista secum gerunt tamquam iterum seipsa invisibiliter in occulta quadam vi generandi, quam extraxerunt de illis primordiis causarum suarum, in quibus creato mundo cum factus est dies, antequam in manifestam speciem sui generis exorerentur, inserta sunt.
10. 17. But one thing is in the Word of God, where these things were not made, but are eternal; another is in the primordial elements of creation, where everything that was to exist was created simultaneously; another in the things that were created according to primordial causes, not simultaneously, but each created in its own time, in which Adam, already formed from the slime of the earth and animated by the divine breath, is like grass when it has grown on the earth; another in seeds, where primordial causes seem to be renewed and reproduced by the very beings that emerged from these causes: just as grass comes from the earth and seed from grass. Of all these beings, the one that came into existence appears with the modifications that make up life, and which are the effective development in a real substance of the secret causes, virtually contained in every creature: such was the grass, after having grown on the earth, such was man formed into a living being, and, in a word, the animals or plants that God produces by virtue of his continuous activity. Moreover, every being contains within itself another being, thanks to the property of self-reproduction that it derives from the primordial causes in which it was enveloped, before being born in the forms proper to its species, at the moment when the world was created with the day.
11. 18. Si enim prima illa opera Dei, cum simul omnia creavit, in suo modo perfecta non essent, ea procul dubio post adderentur quae illis perficiendis defuissent; ut quaedam universitatis perfectio ex utriusque constaret singulis quasi semis, velut alicuius totius partes essent, quarum coniunctione ipsum totum cuius partes fuerant, compleretur. Rursus, si ita essent illa perfecta, sicut perficiuntur, cum suis quaeque temporibus in manifestas formas actusque procreantur; profecto aut nihil ex eis postea per tempora fieret, aut hoc fieret, quod ex istis quae suo quaeque iam tempore oriuntur, Deus non cessat operari. Nunc autem quia iam et consummata quodammodo, et quodammodo inchoata sunt ea ipsa quae consequentibus evolvenda temporibus primitus Deus omnia simul creavit, cum faceret mundum: consummata quidem quia nihil habent illa in naturis propriis, quibus suorum temporum cursus agunt, quod non in istis causaliter factum sit; inchoata vero, quoniam quaedam erant quasi semina futurorum, per saeculi tractum ex occulto in manifestum locis congruis exserenda: ipsius etiam Scripturae verba satis ad hoc admonendum insigniter vigent, si quis in eis evigilet. Nam et consummata ea dicit et inchoata: nisi enim consummata essent, non scriptum esset: Et consummata sunt coelum et terra, et omnis compositio eorum: et consummavit Deus in die sexto opera sua, quae fecit; et benedixit Deus diem septimum, et sanctificavit eum; rursusque nisi inchoata essent, non ita sequeretur, quia in illa die requievit ab omnibus operibus suis quae inchoavit Deus facere.
11. 18. If the primitive works of God, when he created everything together, had not been completed, they would have subsequently received the development necessary to make them complete; universal creation would break down into two halves, so to speak, and its perfection would be that which results in a whole from the union of these two halves. On the other hand, if the works had been completed as they are, when beings actually develop in time in a visible form, one of two things would have happened: either nothing would have come out of them with time, or they would have served as a principle for the creatures that God never ceases to draw from those formed by the progress of time. But even today, there is both a complete and an unfinished work in the creatures whose causes were created in the beginning, when God made all his works at once, to produce in the course of time all their effects: they are complete, in that the existence they acquire in the course of time has all the qualities implicitly contained in the principle of their species; they are unfinished, in that they contain the germ of beings to come, which must appear in the course of time, at the opportune moment. The words of Scripture, if we pay attention, have a very significant force and warn us of this truth. It proclaims these works complete and at the same time unfinished. If they were not complete, it would not have said: “So heaven and earth were completed in all their beauty. And God completed all his works on the sixth day; and God rested on the seventh day from all his works; and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” On the other hand, had they not been unfinished, [the Scripture] would not have added the following words: “God rested from all the works he began to do.”
11. 19. Hic igitur si quis inquirat quomodo consummavit et quomodo inchoavit: neque enim alia consummavit, alia inchoavit, sed eadem ipsa utique a quibus in die septimo requievit, ex iis quae supra diximus clarum est. Consummasse quippe ista intellegimus Deum, cum creavit omnia simul ita perfecte, ut nihil ei adhuc in ordine temporum creandum esset, quod non hic ab eo iam in ordine causarum creatum esset: inchoasse autem, ut quod hic praefixerat causis, post impleret effectis. Proinde formavit Deus hominem pulverem terrae, vel limum terrae, hoc est de pulvere vel limo terrae; et inspiravit sive sufflavit in eius faciem spiritum vitae, et factus est homo in animam vivam. Non tunc praedestinatus; hoc enim ante saeculum in praescientia Creatoris: neque tunc causaliter vel consummate inchoatus, vel inchoate consummatus; hoc enim a saeculo in rationibus primordialibus, cum simul omnia crearentur: sed creatus in tempore suo, visibiliter in corpore, invisibiliter in anima, constans ex anima et corpore.
11. 19. At this point, then, if anyone were to ask in what way he completed and in what way he began – indeed he did not complete some things and begin others, but they are absolutely the same, from which he rested on the seventh day – this is clear from what we have said above. Indeed, we understand that God completed these things, when he created all things in such a perfect way, that nothing was yet to remain for him to create in the order of time, which had not already been created by him in the order of causes, yet we understand that he began, in the sense that what he had pre-established in the causes, he would then have accomplished in the effects. Thus, then, “God formed man dust of the ground” or mud of the earth, that is, from the dust of the ground or from mud of the earth, and breathed or “inspired in his face the spirit of life, and man was made a living soul” (Genesis 2:7); he was not predestined at that moment – that, indeed, [was done] before the century, in the Creator’s foreknowledge – nor was he causally begun, by being completed or completed by being begun – that, indeed, [was done] at the beginning of the century in the primordial reasons, when he created everything simultaneously – but he was created visibly in the body in his time and invisibly in the soul, since he is constituted by soul and body.
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12. 21. Nec illud audiendum est, quod nonnulli putant, ideo praecipuum Dei opus esse hominem, quia caetera dixit, et facta sunt; hunc autem ipse fecit: sed ideo potius, quia hunc ad imaginem suam fecit. Nam illa quae dixit et facta sunt, ideo sic scriptum est, quia per Verbum eius facta sunt, sicut per hominem hominibus dici potuit verbis, quae temporaliter cogitantur, et voce proferuntur. Non sic autem loquitur Deus, nisi cum per corporalem creaturam loquitur, sicut Abrahae, sicut Moysi, sicut per nubem de Filio suo. Ante vero omnem creaturam, ut esset ipsa creatura, eo Verbo dictum est, quod in principio erat Deus apud Deum: et quia omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil, utique et homo per ipsum factus est. Certe enim coelum verbo fecit, quia dixit et factum est: scriptum est tamen: Et opera manuum tuarum sunt coeli. Et de hoc imo quasi fundo mundi scriptum est: Quoniam ipsius est mare, et ipse fecit illud, et aridam terram manus eius finxerunt. Non igitur hoc in honorem hominis deputetur, velut caetera Deus dixerit, et facta sint, hunc autem ipse fecerit; aut verbo caetera, hunc autem manibus fecerit. Sed hoc excellit in homine, quia Deus ad imaginem suam hominem fecit, propter hoc quod ei dedit mentem intellectualem, qua praestat pecoribus; unde iam superiore loco disseruimus. In quo honore positus, si non intellexerit, ut bene agat, eisdem ipsis pecoribus quibus praelatus est comparabitur. Sic etenim scriptum est: Homo in honore positus non intellexit; comparatus est pecoribus insensatis, et similis factus est eis. Nam et pecora Deus fecit, sed non ad imaginem suam.
12.21 […] it is not, therefore, this that is counted as man’s honor [i.e. the text says he was made by God’s hands] and that for the other things God had said and they had been made, while it was himself who made man, the other things by word, this one [man], on the other hand, he had made with his hands. But it is in this that man excels, in that God made him in his own image, for which reason he gave him intellectual judgment, by which he prevails over cattle, as we have already said above. And if he has not understood in what honor he has been placed in order to act well, then he will be compared to that same cattle to which he has been preferred. Indeed, it is written thus: “man did not understand the honor he was placed in; he was compared to the foolish cattle and became like them” (Psalm 48:13). Indeed, God also made cattle, but not in his own image.
12. 22. Nec dicendum est: Hominem ipse fecit, pecora vero iussit, et facta sunt: et hunc enim et illa per Verbum suum fecit, per quod facta sunt omnia. Sed quia idem Verbum et Sapientia et Virtus eius est; dicitur et manus eius, non visibile membrum, sed efficiendi potentia. Nam haec eadem Scriptura quae dicit quod Deus hominem de limo terrae finxerit, dicit etiam quod bestias agri de terra finxerit, quando eas cum volatilibus coeli ad Adam adduxit, ut videret quid ea vocaret. Sic enim scriptum est: Et finxit Deus adhuc de terra omnes bestias. Si ergo et hominem de terra et bestias de terra ipse formavit, quid habet homo excellentius in hac re, nisi quod ipse ad imaginem Dei creatus est? Nec tamen hoc secundum corpus, sed secundum intellectum mentis, de quo post loquemur.
12.22 Nor should we say: “He made man himself, but the cattle, he commanded and it was”. He made both “by his word, by which all things were made” (John 1:3). But since this same word is the wisdom and power of God, it is also called the hand of God, not as a visible member, but as power of doing. Indeed, the same Scripture that says God fashioned man from mud, says he also fashioned the beasts of the fields, when he took them to Adam with the birds of the air to see what he would call them. Indeed, it is written thus: “And God fashioned all the beasts out of the earth” (Genesis 1:25). So if He Himself formed man from the earth and the beasts of the earth, what is more excellent about man than the fact that he was created in the image of God? But this is not according to the body, but according to the intellect of judgment, about which we will speak later.
Quamquam et in ipso corpore habeat quamdam proprietatem quae hoc indicet, quod erecta statura factus est, ut hoc ipso admoneretur non sibi terrena esse sectanda, velut pecora, quorum voluptas omnis ex terra est, unde in alvum cuncta prona atque prostrata sunt. Congruit ergo et corpus eius animae rationali, non secundum lineamenta figurasque membrorum, sed potius secundum id quod in coelum erectum est, ad intuenda quae in corpore ipsius mundi superna sunt: sicut anima rationalis in ea debet erigi, quae in spiritalibus natura maxime excellunt, ut quae sursum sunt sapiat, non quae super terram.
Yet it is in his very body that man has a certain property that indicates this [his excellence], namely that he was made with an upright stature, so that by this he may be informed that he must not seek for himself earthly things, like cattle whose whole pleasure comes from the earth: hence the fact that this one is all bent towards the belly and prostrated towards the earth. Then, his body also, corresponds to the rational soul, not according to the features of the face and the shape of the limbs, but rather by the fact that it is lifted up to heaven, in order to look at what is highest in the body of this world; just as the rational soul must lift itself up to what is spiritual and excels in the highest degree by nature, in order to taste what is above and not what is on earth (Colossians 3:2).